Reading Blog 19: “Web 2.0: The Second Generation of the Internet has Arrived and it’s Worse than You Think”

In this article, Andrew Keen takes a look at Web 2.0 and seriously does not like what he sees. He thinks that the community-building, voice-sharing, and democratizing of internet space by large companies that is Web 2.0 is nothing more than a personalized (read narcissistic), mediocre, professional-less space, that honestly isn’t all that great. Keen’s worries are multi-faceted; he first and foremost sees the ability to personalize social internet spaces as a gross form of narcissism; by adjusting our pages to reflect the best in us, and filtering out media that we don’t agree with, we both exalt ourselves to everyone who sees our content and narrow our perspectives drastically on a medium that allows us the most contact with other perspectives. Keen also thinks that the democratization of media and the creation of content will not improve our experiences; rather, when professional content becomes as noted as home-made, mediocre content, the quality of our media experience will be heavily reduced. It’s like giving the composition of Mozart the same availability and presence online with a baby’s composition; it devalues the work and professional excellency of Mozart’s piece.

URLs:

– http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

– http://media.appappeal.com/cloud/web-2.0-tag-cloud-10.png

– http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1380/1457

Discussion Q’s:

– Do the benefits of democratized media outweigh the negatives?

– Why is professional content assumed to be superior to homemade content in this article?